I look forward to contributing to the diversity of your program as a young woman from Belize. Unlike most people from my country, I am fluent in Spanish as well as English, learning it as a child from my grandmother who did not speak much English. As a Spanish speaking woman of African descent, I feel strongly that I have a lot to contribute to the health care of minority groups in America and I keenly look forward to participating in your state-of-the-art program so as to learn how to become the finest Physician Assistant that I can possibly become.

In my final year of undergraduate studies at the University of XXXX as a Biomedical Sciences major, I have been particularly blessed since last June of 2012 with the honor of working several hours each week at the XXXX Clinic in Jacksonville. I provide assistance to nurses in the Pain Clinic and thoroughly clean each room after the patient leaves. I have now logged more than 100+ hours of work at XXXX Clinic in the Transport Department of our Pain Clinic and I become extremely happy as soon as I walk through the doors. When my shift is over I find myself not wanting to leave. It is the patients that I love most of all. I particularly enjoy wheeling them down to the waiting area after they have been discharged and delivering morning newspapers, mail, and flowers to designated areas of the hospital.

From last August through December (2012), I had the privilege of completing a course through the International Affairs Program at the Washington DC Center for Internship and Academic Studies. As part of my program, I chose to advocate on behalf of The National Network to End Domestic Violence for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (S.1925) on Capitol Hill. I am also completing a minor in psychology and I am very much engaged with important social issues, particularly those that affect women and children.

I am applying to your program because I feel strongly that among the many career options that are available in health care, I am the best fit with the role of Physician Assistant. At this early juncture in my career, I do not yet have concrete plans for my career, but I do know that I have special dreams about attending to the health care needs of the underserved and it would be a special triumph for me at some point in the future to be able to help my people back in Belize.

For me, it would be a special honor to serve as a Physician Assistant in an area where the majority of the population falls below the poverty line and/or has a high concentration of elderly residents. I want to serve where the ratio of primary care physician to residents is low and infant mortality rates are high..

From my time spent in D.C. I also learned a lot about rural health, how people in rural areas face a lot of challenges not faced by people in urban areas, particularly with respect to access to healthcare. I am concerned that rural residents are often over looked by legislation and do not get as much help and support as they might need. Most of all, however, I have a special interest in Women's health. I have invested a lot of my free time in the study of the many ways in which women are marginalized on a global level, especially when it comes to receiving the healthcare they need, for many different reasons, especially the fact that women, particularly in developing countries, do not have equal access to and control over economic resources.

I want to address the weakness of my application to your program. Belize, while better off than some of its close neighbors like Honduras, is still a very poor country. Life was always a difficult economic struggle for me and my family and I was fortunate that my family was able to move to the USA when I was 13. But the struggle to make ends meet continued. When I started college, I was working full time, up to 60 plus hours and traveling a lot for my job so I found myself forced to withdraw from several classes. Over time, I learned how to better manage this very difficult balance between work and study, however, and I have only dropped one class over the course of my last 2 years of study.

I will be participating in a research internship program with XXXX Clinic this summer and I am very excited about the prospect of a fuller immersion in full time health care. I am also convinced that this experience will help me to excel in your program from the very beginning. I want to thank you for consideration of my application.